Because despite all the laws we do have, all the safeguards that are in place, man’s inhumanity unto man still manages to prevail; people simply find new, more efficient ways to kill each other, swindle each other, take advantage of each other. And someone will always be waiting in the wings to put an end to the great experiment, democracy, so laws evolve and change, are added and subtracted. Why the constitution was written to be a fluid and partially malleable document… Overall human freedom index rankings quite possibly missing the important stuff for lesser annoyances present in any society, or maybe that was just the Fox News spin; at least critical analysis fosters understanding Germany might not deserve its 13th place spot having just reengineered rape law in that country to where a woman doesn’t have to physically fight off her attacker for it to be considered rape, cases where she could be unconscious, and no, not merely from alcohol consumption, even drugs slipped into a drink, but cruder basics, an assailant knocking her over the head, waking up mid-act from having been asleep; serious contemplation about how much it will drop, if it will at all, having discovered wide spread abuse perpetuated by the catholic church and a well-known boys choir/school there headlining allegations of withholding food, beatings and sexual abuse far past the statute of limitations under their legal system? How does Ireland rank 4th ahead of both Canada and the UK after a high profile abortion case there ended in a Hindu woman’s death from blood poisoning because, though her fetus/child was non-viable and they knew nothing could be done to save the child, they refused her what they termed an abortion due to their still being a fetal heartbeat and this took place at a catholic hospital. Never mind, as stated the couple was Hindu not Christian, it is well documented she was having a miscarriage making the procedure to remove the fetus a D&C ((Dilation and Curettage) routinely performed after an aforementioned miscarriage, parallel to delivering the placenta after birth so the woman doesn’t bleed to death, suffer other deadly, devastating consequences. Additionally, while it is true they could do nothing to save her baby, she died needlessly to serve the religious compunctions of an entire nation, most hospitals being catholic there. That was 2012 and their legislature is just slated to hear an abortion referendum this year; keeping in mind we’re talking about the same Ireland who wanted to investigate well known British comedian Stephen Fry for blasphemy in 2017 stemming from his on air insistence there is no god, crude jokes about god, asking how god can be so ego-driven as to allow kids with bone cancer to suffer in horrible pain. It’s not enough to say ban him from future Irish TV appearances, which would be a monumentous blow to progressive freedoms touted in European nations, but the police actually took the call seriously, set out to investigate its validity. Speaking of the U.K., once more one wonders how far their ranking will slip post the Grenfell Tower fire, revelations tenants made a long list of safety complaints over a protracted time period, totally unanswered; had they not used a cheap, flammable exterior material none of it would have happened and 79 people wouldn’t be dead in one of the most horrific ways. Others injured by the dozens, sparking evacuations of similarly constructed buildings, most public housing, national testing done on all possible structures containing, constructed using the dangerous material, leaving hundreds suddenly homeless; the recognized, too late, folly of England’s Brexit, reverberations to be felt for decades to come. Canada ties with the UK, Australia crowding 6th place despite holding a rape victim to ensure her testimony, echoing an American judge who berated domestic violence victims, sex assault/rape victims too fearful to appear in court; decision leading to public reprimand by the Florida (state where it happened), bar, continued offences will ultimately cost her, her judgeship. Australia has as much of a problem with the Anglican church in their country as catholic churches beleaguered other countries, nearly 1,100 complaints lodges against almost 600 clergy spanning 35 years; sneaky suspicious say 2017 or 2018’s rankings, whichever applies to fiscal year data filing, will drop it a couple of numbers no more, preserving its implied stellar ranking remaining in the top 10. Several European countries rankings perplexing cataloging things banned in these nations that are every day, ordinary on American soil; chemicals, to food dyes and preservatives outlawed in the UK to the removal of baby walkers in Canada, legal trouble following purchases at garage sales, thrift markets penalty up to $100,00 or 6 months in jail. Alleged to cause serious harm to infants plus delay motor and mental development; many parents will testify is wrong as it built their child’s motor skills not stunted them, allowed mobility to an already diagnosed disabled child, one who would be a short time in the future-oh. Sure we all shook our heads at celebrity baby names apple Blithe Alison Martin, North and Saint West, the charged NSA leaker named Reality Leigh Winner, but to hand people a list of 7,000 pre-approved names and say choose one inevitably leads to another problem, so many people sharing the same name they get confused in criminal cases, identity fraud, exc., yet Denmark who instated this ‘rule’ incorporated an added caveat, if you want to name your child something else it must be approved by a church. And here we thought Europe was secular, almost identical laws in neighboring nations Switzerland and New Zealand sit at numbers 2 and 3 respectively. Begging an important question both be asked and asserted here, are they correct in naming less litigious, less regulated societies more free, implication something to aspire to or do top westernized entities the United States, Canada who bristled at their own drop in ranking, catch on to a bigger picture laws, a lot of laws aren’t necessarily a bad thing, protect people from the negatives of not having a law or regulation against something, for something else? An answer ringing as a resounding no, laws are good, laws regulating the right thing at the right time mean more of them are a good thing providing they fit the situations and societies they are instituted in… America, and Canada too on distinct levels, have so many laws, regulate so many things, seem to get so far into the public’s business chiefly because they are managing much larger populations, experiencing the problems and difficulties that come with those citizen numbers. Further America specifically, as most western democracies, possesses a constitution, the government structure it does, a democratic republic where of age citizens elect representatives to speak for us in the political sphere, go to our political capitol Washington, craft laws on our behalf to avoid exactly what is observed in other counties ruled by active monarchies, theocracies, fractured governments, whatever warlord rose to power this week, solidified dictatorships. Core freedoms of religion, either to practice one or abstain altogether, press, free dissemination of information, newspapers, news programs, blogs and online content, freedom of speech, to say what you want, where you want, about whom you want, even when it’s negative, unflattering, confrontational holding few exceptions; phrases that would cause mass panic and injury, crossing the line to actual threats/intimidation. Assembly to peacefully gather making your voice heard usually on political, social justice issues and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances meaning; you have the right to both make a complaint against your government using proper process, or seek government assistance in resolving a complaint once it reaches a certain level sans fear or punishment, retaliation. Bill of rights surpassing those fundamentals housed in what’s known as the first amendment going on to outline gun ownership, prohibition of excessive fines or bail, illegal search and seizure of property, cruel, unusual, excessive punishment disproportionate to the crime; establishing the right to a swift and speedy trial, during said trial you will not be forced to incriminate yourself nor can you be tried for the same crime twice, aptly named double jeopardy. Regardless what ranking we achieve or don’t on a scale many will justifiably liken to national, international educational test scores holding no bearing on future employment, monetary success and really only amounts to bragging rights, you won’t see a pro-democracy protester face beheading in America, let alone at the tender age of 17 about to start college; major world leaders besieged to intervene for a Saudi Arabian by facing just that after 5 years in prison and exhausted appeals. Teens are likewise not arrested for online flirting particularly if the boy proposes to the girl and she says yes, no one is arrested for atheism; neither do we arrest people for what they’re wearing, not wearing unless it crosses the line to indecent exposure, revealing the genitals or breasts on women, definitely not a mini-skirt, documented instances all coming from aforementioned Saudi Arabia. In the small town pocket exceptions run by old fuddy-duddies unimpressed, appalled by modern fashion who’ve morphed that into a city ordinance, A- they were called out as overreacting and absolutely crazy, unfortunately achieved via democratic process of the citizens residing in the area, it only resulted in a fine; the one resulting death from an improper arrest born out of such an ordinance was duly condemned and fell more under police brutality because they tased, arrested then beat him in jail, a phenomenon fully acknowledged and understood when dissecting America’s ranking. Equally you cannot be arrested here for insults to any religion, religious figure or government official; never mind be sentenced to death over social media posts disparaging of Islam, ala Pakistan, forget be sentenced to prison, hard labor spanning decades what happened to a citizen who criticize the Thailand monarchy. No one is going to arrest you for playing Pokémon go in a church, what happened in Russia, just ask you to leave; there are no religious police in this country, why when a church wanted to establish its own police force to enforce ‘morality,’ protect its on-site school and seminary it grabbed the attention of national news, dido when it passed state legislature, no word on implementation yet. Another dark religious aspect you won’t find here, honor killings attempted honor killings; we don’t kill people for violating religious laws based on any religious texts, engrained cultural mores stemming from religion i.e. wearing westernized clothes, having a boyfriend, as a mother did to her daughter, setting her on fire for eloping with a man she’d loved since their school days. Actions not even tolerated in their native Pakistan; still too common an occurrence, their variation on our domestic violence. There are no religious tests to hold public office, so states article 6 of the constitution, why once presidential candidate now operator of the department for housing and urban development Ben Carson’s comments he didn’t think a Muslim should/could become president were so scandalous; similarly no religious tests is applied to persons entering the country either to become a citizen, petition for citizenship, while traveling here on a tourist, student visa, to visit relatives, conduct business. We don’t target religions, ban people from targeted religions from coming here, steps Russia took against Jehovah’s witnesses and why president Trump’s Muslim travel ban was so foul; it goes against the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, easily applied to faith, when the supreme court renders it’s final decision, more applicable to current existing law since he banned persons from 7 majority Muslim countries directly conflicting with the law expressly spelling out you can’t discriminate against people based on their country of origin, abolishing previously used quota systems slanted in favor of European nationalities. Patriotism is a tradition openly defined but no one can legally compel you to demonstrate that patriotism, you can even burn the flag here without repercussions lest they be related to the fire started and subsequent hazard posed carrying a much lesser penalty unless someone is grievously injured or dies, a phenomenon not taking place to date; contrasted to the Philippines where enthusiastic singing of the national anthem is now a matter of law. For all the silly, unnecessary bans/stupid laws touted, listed dangerous, asinine maneuvers taken by police we’ve never arrested a 9 month old for murder let alone to the point of bringing him up on charges, why because his family protested high gas prices fighting back with rocks against police with guns in Pakistan. Approaching a bit of the lighter side, we don’t ban popular movies, movie theaters, music concerts parroting Saudi religious leaders, certainly not because of an actors ethnic, racial background what Lebanon did barring Wonder Woman apparently owing to one star being Israeli; we don’t ban dating TV shows, Wikipedia, our constitution is structured exactly so that can’t happen, we don’t get bogged down in the petty, silly or stupid at the national level without a filter. We don’t launch serious hate campaigns against cartoons, Winnie The Pooh because people are crafting social media memes likening the present to him for his bulbous weight, photo similarities to cartoon stills. We don’t bar social media or censor things on it that don’t correspond with state run media or propaganda, contradict the presence of say the LGBT community; only seeking to block hate speech, violence, institute mandatory reporting when content is clear evidence of a serious crime, former aspects sites like Facebook have been abysmal at anyway. We don’t ban basic scientific content to be taught in school, though not for a lack of trying in some pockets across the country, still much less effective than Turkey’s blanket ban because of tight, whole country control on institutions like schools….
A huge section of laws here in the land of the free are aimed at protecting the most vulnerable citizens, children, the elderly, the disabled, developmentally delayed, establishing rules, guidelines and boundaries for their care and treatment, monitoring their wellbeing. Laws, rules and regulations that ensure what happened to the Japanese boy, links below, doesn’t A- become common practice and B- parents aren’t let go sans an investigation via local agencies meant to stop the abuse, neglect and cruelty to children, what appears to have happened in Japan after parents told their 7 year old to get out of the car next to an extremely wooded area known for bears, because he was allegedly throwing rocks at cars passing. They proceeded to drive away, coming back minutes later when they believed he had been thoroughly frightened, perhaps learned his lesson only to find him gone, reluctant to contact authorities and reveal their actions, initially lying to police saying he was lost while the family picked vegetables; lone potential saving grace for the child, Japan’s cultural history of honor and public shaming deterring his parents from like behavior in the future…. Counterbalancing religious freedom spanning the United States, religion will not protect you from criminal law; Homestead Heritage, like Warren Jeffs’ cult was exposed people arrested and charged with the child sex abuse they committed. We know about Pastor Robert Wyatt and his Thornton, Colorado church because he was arrested for the rape of a 12 year old parishioner, court documents showing church officials and her adoptive parents’ attempts to cover it up; dido the homeschoolers who attempted to 1- sell their daughter and 2- at a discount because she had been molested, thankfully she escaped. We know about the Christian CEO arranging sex with a dog on Craigslist due to his arrest, several arrests of religious leaders, anti-gay pastors caught with child porn because of their subsequent arrest; we know about the slave immigrant labor used by one church, like issues with president Trump through investigative reporting by prominent news agencies. Tennessee police shut down a church of scientology facility hidden deep in the woods, comprised of small cabins and a doublewide trailer after a man’s 9-1-1 call directed them to ‘patients’ being held against their will. Molestation transpiring in elite boarding schools, much like the catholic churches has been exposed, college professors’ relationships with underage students, possession of child porn; it made headlines when a predatory Arkansas judge was found to have traded sexual favors for lenient sentences, 100’s of sexually explicit pictures found on his computer forcing his resignation, indicted on 21 counts including witness tampering. People regularly attempt to use religious defenses in court to little avail, January this year a father and son who planned to use the bible as their defense for chaining up and raping the older man’s 13 year old step daughter were both sentenced to essentially life in prison; following an Indiana mother who claimed the religious freedom restoration act singed by now vice president Mike Pence, while governor of Indiana, gave her he right to beat her son using a wire coat hanger leaving behind vivid red marks, digesting 2016 court filings, who got a year in jail served through probation and was ordered to parenting classes to learn alternative forms of discipline. 2015 saw a New York couple facing first degree manslaughter for the death of their 19 year old son beaten for his ‘sins’ along with his 17 year old brother, and in 2012 a mother and her boyfriend were charged in the murder of 7 year old RJ Arrington after the boyfriend beat him employing various objects, violently shaking him for lying about reading the bible, failing to do homework; the latter receiving decades behind bars that will incarcerate them for the remainder of their natural lives. Switching gears slightly, absent statutes like the Americans with disabilities act, headways made on all disability rights unto that point and after children/persons with disabilities might be kept in cages, conditions ABC World News Tonight’s David Muir found in Mexico City for want of proper staff training. They absolutely wouldn’t be able to reach their full potential, or if they did achieve that benchmark, would be able to go almost nowhere from then on as an adult for want of accessible public buildings, employment, accessible restrooms, agencies to coordinate within the community; thanks to laws on the books every child, even those with the most profound physical, developmental, intellectual and emotional disabilities are required to be educated to the maximum of their ability until age 21, have access to appropriate assistive technologies and individual education plans where appropriate. Progress on disability rights to remove the antiquated word retarded, when describing people with intellectual disabilities, in federal documents to be replaced with the more accurate developmentally delayed. Unfortunately you continue to encounter stories where seeing eye and service dogs are barred from stores, as service dogs branch out to helping more and more individuals combat a widening rage of ailments schools and other facilities are pushing back against animals seen as pets, a distraction or a potential hazard to bite, cause allergy; a school took away a blind student’s cane due to his swinging it at people on the bus refusing to give it back as it was school property forcing him to use a pool noodle. While in another part of the country there was a 13 year old girl who won at the Supreme Court level to keep her service dog at school helping her with independence and navigating her environment amidst combatting cerebral palsy, made possible by the ADA…
Consumer protections, despite political rhetoric to the contrary, do more than stymie business, they protect it, permitting it to operate, especially when that business is medical advancements, improved medical treatments; establishing rules, guidelines and boundaries governing things like human medical trials, medical trials prior to that point directly minimizing risk to the person when undergoing an experimental procedure, trying an untested, limitedly tested medication. Laws, rules and regulations that didn’t stop a stem cell treatment from leaving participants blind; didn’t stop need for refined legislation, new legislation in exactly what Salon link 2 states managing safety concerns at California dialysis clinics. Laws, guidelines and parameters not yet making it to sperm banks independent infertility spikes, women having children later, women choosing to have children with stated help not having found Mr. right, sperm banks going hand in hand with surrogacy services for same LGBT persons; crudely nicknamed test-tube babies around since the somewhere between 1981and 85 stateside, our counterparts across the pond achieving the first test-tube baby from IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) in 1978. Nevertheless when Sarah Robertson wanted to preserve her husband’s sperm post suddenly having a stroke, until she was ready to have the child they’d always planned to, the bank she chose lost the samples; investigating journalism finding zero regulation, voluntary screening for all but 8 diseases not encompassing the most devastating, haphazard attempts to verify the claims asserted on donor applications including one profile describing the donor as holding a PhD in neuroscience, actually a schizophrenic convicted felon who never earned a college degree. Plaguing Robertson’s thoughts they gave her husband’s sperm to someone else, strangers sans key medical information about his Marfan syndrome, what cause his stroke and early death, a genetic disorder they always planned to test for before getting pregnant. Problems easily echoed for women wanting to store their eggs for later use, critical for girls, young women battling childhood, pediatric cancer able to store their undamaged eggs and perhaps have their own, biological children once grown and healthy. Existing consumer protections that don’t stop television viewers from seeing law firm commercials alerting them to suits against previously FDA, food and drug administration (an administration/regulatory body charged with screening medical products, devices and medications to treat diseases and ailments who sifts through volumes of medical data taking sometimes years to render a decision) approved drugs, medical devices breaking, leaving behind catastrophic complications, faulty hip replacements, blood clot prevention devices, hernia mesh malfunctions; devastating lives, racking up thousands in medical costs, preventing people from working, forcing them onto disability rolls, gawked at because of notable disfigurement, think gaping holes were joints were and replacements failed horrendously. Contemplate link 9 consumer complaints regarding cosmetics, morning talk shows sounding public alarm letting consumers know this industry of make-up, moisturizer and adjacent products is essentially self-regulating and self-reporting when confronting quality control issues hinting at steeper regulations forthcoming to prevent specific cancers, hormonal disruptions linked to diseases and other health problems. Achieving better regulation, doling out tips to help buyers protect themselves translates into people continuing to buy cosmetics rather than swearing them off for fear of medical repercussions they could be being exposed to, could draw customers to you if your product has few and pronounceable ingredients. Dovetailing into supplements largely unregulated by the FDA spelling problems when they interact with prescription medications, cause organ damage, natural body process interruption; facing far less scrutiny then over the counter things like aspirin meaning potential contamination, loophole being since it’s not considered a drug it doesn’t need the same intense scrutiny. Identical happenings when entities sell unregulated drugs/products on the internet, curatives are peddled there too by religious organizations catching the attention of both federal government officials and investigative reporters after the death of a former NASA scientist’s wife; 20/20’s Brian Ross ordering then sending out to a respected medical lab this so called miracle cure said to reverse everything from breast cancer to autism, analyzed only to discover it was bleach and actually poison. Who recalls the Johnson & Johnson $70 million settlement award given to a woman contracting ovarian cancer after years and years of use on the intimate body parts reducing odor, sweat linked to the talc in their iconic baby powder….With consumer protections also come other provisions built into a majority of westernized societies, worker protections first and foremost centered around physical safety, functional, safe working conditions, rules on work hours being the most recognized; OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) coordinates on the job regulation, violation of safety protocols. Still didn’t prevent the Upper Big Branch mining disaster where for want of basic safety practices 29 people wouldn’t have lost their lives, exposing 122 violations over a single year alone and a long history of same years prior, exposing a business culture where it’s cheaper, more convenient to pay the fines than it is to fix the problems, keep employees safe. Owners/operators, CEO’s lining their pockets while not paying their workers near enough to compensate for hazardous conditions, not funneling that money into mitigating said hazardous conditions shielding workers; CEO found guilty of a misdemeanor charge receiving 1 year in prison and 250,000 in fines. BP’s deep water horizon oil rig, where 15 people died, countless workers were injured, legally/legitimately got waivers for disaster plans, permission to forgo environmental impact studies; had no idea how to respond in the event of a spill resulting in untold environmental damage. Cintas professional laundry had huge industrial dryers that would clog daily people forced to climb inside to dislodging stuck fabric items causing one man’s death when he fell in, workers regularly discouraged from reporting injuries to OSHA, requested to come in and watch videos while injured so no missed days of work have to be reported; showing a history of ineffectual oversight management. Fast-forward closer present day, the iconic New Jersey boardwalk fire, a Wisconsin corn mill explosion injuring up to 16 workers and a prior history of safety issues just the most up to date smattering of workplace hazards employed Americans have to navigate. Worker protections also expanded to freedom from physical and sexual harassment as well, prevention of things like leaked Chinese video showing workers humiliatingly being spanked for perceived bad work performance the public there didn’t even agree should have been handled that way, bank president suspended; if you are a student in most schools globally, attending college abroad you won’t be subjected to a virginity test to finalize admission, what an Egyptian official suggested predictably exclusively for female applicants. You have legal recourse if you feel you were fired unjustly or for arbitrary reasons and never underestimate the power of social media; people hear about it when you are fired for the sports tie you wore to work, fired for doing your job, fired for preventing robberies, ordered to pay back money stolen or be fired because the manager allegedly broke policy on putting register amounts over X dollars in the safe; problem, she was too busy serving customers, let go when she refused to pay up. Prompting the following intelligent citizen comment, “I wonder to what degree, if any this is result of the franchise holder not hiring enough staff to serve customers so the manager at the time doesn’t have to serve customers as well. I would think the process of taking excess cash out of the registers to drop into the safe is as fast as characterized. Surely its required that the amount of cash being removed is counted. That takes time to do accurately, time that the register can’t be used to serve customers.” [Sic] Teens told to go home/change shorts bought from their own employer’s website in the career and work category, a teacher axed for participating in a bikini contest, worker fired via text in transport to the hospital after having a life threatening allergic reaction. All offered other jobs or reluctant employer compensation when their stories went viral. Countering the narrative we are the only ones, repetitive to ask again questions about is this piece trying to compare dissimilar, incongruent countries ranks for removed from each other, in light of the top 2 foreign examples; arcane sexist work rules went viral in Canada and the UK (tied for 6th on the index) when someone posted a picture on social media of their friend working at a popular Canadian bar told to remain in her work required heals even though her toenail had come off and her foot was bleeding, representing a sanitary issues for an establishment serving food, prevision in that bar’s footwear rules allowing for medical conditions, emergencies. As if a bleeding food somehow doesn’t qualify as an emergency; makes you wonder what does. UK instance comprising a woman reporting to her first day on a new jab where she was told she would be given a uniform but she could not wear her dress flat shoes laughed at mercilessly when question why by asking why a fellow male co-worker wasn’t wearing heals either, flats worn precisely due to a 9 hour shift at reception being up and down escorting clients to meeting rooms; global attention prompting officials to review the policy igniting a national debate. Workplace rules making it harder for persons with disabilities to get employed, sending them through another hoop obtaining a medical waiver to wear the shoes they can with orthotic braces, work place rules creating headaches for people with age related, birth defect or simply common foot problems to don the footwear recommended by their doctors, make it that much harder for older workers to work unto retirement, well after if they chose. 2 women’s bid for functional footwear and sane policies hardly the first time workplace rules stood to embarrass held up as better than us European countries; in 2010 word got out Norwegian bosses overseeing various offices across the country were monitoring and putting red wristbands on women during their period to explain ‘extended time’ allegedly spent in the bathroom, about 66% micromanaging female employees this way were doling out pass keys to restrooms to track time spent in the toilet but only 1 went that far; Norway sharing a cozy respectable spot with Germany listed 13th. The very next year 2011 UBS bank out of Switzerland quickly became the butt of global jokes when it’s 44 page style guide became known covering tips from what perfume to wear, how to apply makeup and extending the life of your knee socks, suggesting skin tone colored underwear and admonishing people to avoid onion and garlic breath, “Men are told to choose ties with patterns that ‘match the bone structure of the face’…told how to knot a tie as well as to get a haircut every month and avoid unruly beards and earrings.” If you need a 44 page dress code on a job not handling dangerous, volatile chemicals, explosives, nuclear waste, infectious diseases, other bio or industrial hazards you plainly need to think again; if you really must tell your employees to button their suit jacket upon standing and unbutton upon sitting, tell women to avoid black nail polish, you either need to get a better applicant pool or take a solid look at who comes into your bank and how they react to the supposedly offensive grooming habits, you may find it endears them to younger customers. Important, these aren’t places that cane women for wearing pants, forbid them to drive cars, wear makeup (ever) and arrest them for exposing head hair in public, they are fully westernized, most would say actualized nations holding at less than the top 10 while America sits between 19th and 23rd; putting a further black eye on their stellar reputation, these countries rankings have held with little fluctuation for several years inconsistent with continuous stories revealed…
Gaping holes in legislation marring the America we all thought we had; repeatedly Americans in recent decades are waking up to the cold, hard cognitive dissonance of the America they believed they lived in and the one that actually exists where situations, natural disasters, mass shootings, other major violent acts, show us we don’t live in the perfection, at least for us, once believed. Superstorm Sandy readily exposed the stupidity of disbanding an agency like FEMA responsible for disaster relief; hurricane Katrina before that underscoring importance of updated disaster evacuation plans to accommodate number of city residents, importance tied to unsung parts of infrastructure i.e. levies, chiefly maintaining them. Nevertheless less presidential candidates Rand Paul and Mitt Romney ran on privatizing such services, Paul telling debate listeners not to build their house on a beach, it get washed away expecting the government to furnish funds for replacement; Sandy partially ensuring neither got elected. Accessing rightful compensation for damages in either major disaster event another maze of papers, headache and limbo complicated further when FEMA trailers used as temporary housing became toxic. Who could forget the endless uproar over former president Obama’s birth certificate, news coverage largely devoted to debunking unrealistic claims, commentary calling floated conspiracy theories absurd, racist and discriminatory, which they were no doubt, but they missed then business tycoon Donald Trump was able to say a certificate of live birth and a birth certificate weren’t the same thing because of variations in common documents differing slightly by city, county and state, the double digit number of types long form, short form, certified, heirloom, informational exc. Critical when paring identification issues with voting laws aimed to prevent fraud that end up defrauding thousands of their right to vote, when you don’t have a birth certificate because you’re at least 70 years of age and don’t remember where it is if you ever had it, don’t recall your birthplace to attempt to track it down, the sheer number of potential fires, floods, building renovations that could have destroyed your birth certificate during those years. Everyone from Jim Crow era south persons who don’t possess birth certificates to off the grid lifestyles, home births of today; the process when dealing with an error on your original birth certificate, obtaining documents if you move from the state where you were born….On the other hand, Montel Williams years go said on his show, when he was still hosting a talk program concluding in 2008, we don’t have a process for dealing with the innocent; telling the story of a woman arrested on the side of the road, shoved into the dirt, shirt immodestly nearly yanked off of her possibly in front of her family, for them to get her to the police station performing a mandatory strip search for processing, only then did they begin asking where are your tattoos, where’s your mole finally realizing what she’d been trying to tell them, they had the wrong person. She would still spend at minimum the weekend in jail as there was no one available to process her out, no procedure to handle an innocent wrongful arrest. And things haven’t changed in the 8 years since he went off the air, in fact getting worse; adding to the number of people shot mistaken for a criminal, police barging into the wrong home to serve arrest warrants the New York Times did an eye-popping piece last year entitled ‘How a $2 Roadside Drug Test Sends Innocent People to Jail’ revealing problems not just with the testing, barely updated since 1973, prone to producing positives not merely for drugs but for common household cleaners, color tests long ago determined starkly unreliable by the scientific testing bodies responsible for final substance analysis, rendered falsely one way or the other because of heat or cold, effects of weather, warnings going as far back as 1978 about them being used as sole evidence, justice department demanding warnings be place on packages about false positives by test kit makers as of 2000 to spotty compliance. Officer training on using those tests, in an effort to reduce horrendous backlogs training seminars often replace laboratory tests in probable cause scenarios, situations plagued by officers who couldn’t understand the instructions, officers who misunderstood which color indicated a positive, those that included breaking plastic covered vials/pouches in a specific order breaking them in the wrong order, misreading them or guessing thanks to poor lighting, testing crumbs and specs of would be drugs; now we all know from science, forensic shows like CSI and it’s several spin-offs it can be done, but not in a field scenario using a test that costs less than a latte. Next one woman who was stopped by local Texas patrol with her boyfriend was processed into jail, on felony possession of what was thought to be cocaine, called an acquaintance to check on her disabled son, explain things to her job, next morning meets with an ambivalent, apathetic public defender who didn’t seem to care if she was guilty or innocent having already met with the prosecutor willing to offer her a deal 45 days for what could have been a 2 year sentence. Scared, thinking of who would care for her disabled son, seeing little or no option agreed; after which she was escorted before a judge for an exchange that went like this: “The judge, Vanessa Velasquez, walked her through the recitation, Albritton recalls, but never asked why she couldn’t stop crying long enough to speak in sentences. She had managed to say the one word that mattered: “guilty.” No one prosecutor, public defender or judge would ask for the mandatory lab report since field tests are inadmissible in court as if it didn’t matter because she was pleading guilty. Severing 21 of 45 days she came out to find her boyfriend long gone, her job and subsequent apartment too gone, unable to get anything above minimum wage work from formerly managing apartments, even denied a promotion at her waitressing job because of her conviction. Meanwhile the lab in Texas had been discredited, put under new management who was determined to process everything even on closed cases, guilty pleas, no matter if it took years; leading to a mass of exonerations where not only were weights of drugs off, the wrong drug ‘detected’ but literally hundreds that turned out not to be drugs at all, including Amy Albritton, information coming too late a full 5 months after serving her sentence and being permanently branded a felon. The crumb of ‘drugs’ weren’t in fact drugs at all, rather speculated food particles; powder found on other ‘evidence’ collected from her car came back something called BC powder aspirin and caffeine mixed, perfectly legal and available over the counter. Officials finally cottoning on to the mess hired managers, privative investigators to process paperwork and to find the wrongly convicted, send them letters notifying them of their changed status, finalize their exoneration; Albritton’s sent to an old address and, if it wasn’t for investigative reporters at the New York Times, she still wouldn’t know her case had been overturned. It was then readers found out about more misconduct from her, arguably not worth his law license, public defender best summed up; “In fact, Richardson, Albritton’s original court-appointed lawyer, says the prosecutor offered her a deferred adjudication, in which she may have been able to wait for the results of a lab test outside the walls of a jail cell. Richardson, who first said he had no memory of their conversations, says he told her about the offer but she refused it. Albritton says she has never heard of anything called deferred adjudication. Neither could explain what actually happened. Perhaps they simply accepted that the field test, with its promise of scientific inevitability, would eventually convict her.” Her new representation still waits for the trip before a judge to finalize her exoneration, as of the 2016 story date, and weighing options to a lawsuit, including the test manufacturers; Albritton poster woman for thousands wrongly arrested and languishing in jails for mistakes. Readers will remember the man arrested for meth that turned out to be doughnut icing result of another field test nightmare, another man arrested on DUI who tested positive for caffeine AKA drinking coffee or an energy drink; prosecutors blaming it on too narrow a blood test that doesn’t test for synthetic marijuana, bath salts or performance enhancing drugs. Drugs a chief cause of wrongful arrest and conviction like the woman in 2016 arrested for felony drug possession who was incarcerated 96 days sans access to a lawyer, going before a judge; when she finally did, secretly recorded video initially submitted by police/prosecutors saw her commit no crime whatsoever. Worse, when she sued for violation of her rights to legal counsel, bail, a speedy trial among other things she was told because she was indicted by a grand jury on the drug charge no rights were violated; baffling civil liberties advocates long going to war with Mississippi state’s justice system who nearly refuses to hire any public defenders, allocate any state, county budgetary funds to public defenders. A man languished 6 months in New York’s notorious Riker’s Island because no one told him judges had reduced his bail from 50,000 to $1; New Mexico arrested a man on DWI, put him in a cell alone because of a history of mental illness forgotten in virtually solitary confinement for 2 years unable to shower, toenails growing around his feet, had to pull his own tooth, never given a trial, never saw a judge, had 3 days of evaluations and 7 days of rec time at the beginning, otherwise confined to his cell, eventually winning a $15 million dollar settlement from the state. In Florida, the man spending 3 months behind bars awaiting test results proved negative suspects drywall dust from his job is what cops mistook for crack, incidentally the identical state of the icing case. A woman rousted out of bed by police asked if she was Maria Hernandez, when she says yes she is roughly thrown into handcuffs, her repeated questions why ignored; over 2 months later they would discover they indeed had the wrong Maria Hernandez, that this one was not guilty of insurance fraud and though she shared the same name, had done nothing wrong. Problem, it was California and Maria Hernandez is a common name, as common to the Hispanic, Mexican America, Latino community as Jane Doe or John Smith; California known for its Latino variants and population. Try another one, man suffering the same police name confusion compounded by a identical birthday was still arrested and spent 3 days in jail independent being 9 inches taller, 40 pounds heavier than the wanted man, possessing a different middle name. Justice system easily nicknamed the injustice system… It’s as if in our insatiable and detrimental drive to compete, to compare ourselves to others, argue over who’s society is freest, who’s social framework is better, who’s education system turns out what kind of student, person, employee, arguably too much emphasis placed on end labor market values upon completion of educational pursuits, we’ve forgotten what laws are for, why they exist, why having many of them or few of them matters less than do they serve the people effected by them. In our rush to call out American society as being too litigious, see lawsuits by prison inmates over peanut butter and caricatures of parents who fed their kids too much candy causing them to puke on the carpet to then sue the candy maker, perception helped along by no shortage of ‘common sense,’ evangelical and identical effect preachers, we failed to see lawsuits as the only recourse for horribly wronged persons, injured persons whose lives were quite possibly torn apart by something that happened as the result of grievous error, negligence, criminal activity by those in authority, stemmed from faulty products with lengthy safety record problems. We failed to question whether ‘fast food made me fat cases’ were really about non-disclosure of fat content/calorie counts, health risk, were they employing marketing tactics ala big tobacco to sell their product; we failed to properly acknowledge the emerging food desert neighborhoods housing only convenience stores and fast food chains selling $1 menu items. Dynamic complicated by manual laborers whose joints would ache were they as buff as fitness gurus hired for The Biggest Loser, forget the average person; impacting their ability to spend 45 minutes to an hour cooking a ‘nutritious/ healthy’ meal for them, their family post working 8,10, 12 or 16 hour days, simultaneously screaming personal responsibility mantras. Comprehension beverage lawsuits were never about coming too late to the conclusion coffee is hot and trying to make a quick buck rather about McDonald’s selling beverages at too high a temperature to be safe, fully aware their competitors kept them 10 and 20 degrees lower, or that if you invested in a 10 cent cup versus a 5 cent one and a 4 cent lid instead of a 2 cent lid there never would have been a suit because no one would have gotten seriously hurt sans drastic human error, thanks to lids that stay on cups that don’t collapse, resulting spill not taking place. Failing to glean the purpose of such lawsuits to effect change, whether that’s changing laws, business practices, product designs, the process by which products are deemed safe for public consumption, to make fellow citizens and lawmakers aware of significant problems. Imagine if one thing, just one thing changed in those drug cases from the previous paragraph, setting aside police training, poor public defender performances, judges who probably assumed those pleading guilty were indeed guilty, even separating why traffic violations for failure to signal, broken taillights, nonfunctioning break or headlights turned into searches for drugs; what if the tests were better, what if they cost $20 not 2 and only popped positives for illegal drugs, active (get high components of illegal drugs), what if it came with a failsafe telling you you’d broken vials in the wrong order, misunderstood instructions, what if all the old tests were replaced with the new ones free of charge to every police department across the country? Putting it bluntly, we have so many laws in this country, in America, known as the free world directly because we have so many laws in this country and still—the cases depicted piece-wide happened…

SAN FRANCISCO, December 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — The global medical tapes & bandages market is anticipated to reach USD 10.97 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing geriatric …Read More